Between 1928 and 1936 the LCC built the St Helier
Estate to rehouse people living in overcrowded conditions
in inner London. Designated a 'garden city', the Estate was
the largest built by the Council south of the River Thames. It
was named after Lady
St Helier, who had been an Alderman of the LCC from 1910 to 1927.
She had fiercely campaigned to improve housing facilities for the
working class poor, but had died in 1931 before the completion of the
Estate.

In 1936 Surrey County Council acquired a
999-year lease on
a 10-acre plot within the Estate on which to build a hospital to serve
the community. The cost of the ground rent of the plot was
£1 a year.

On 26th March 1938 Queen Mary laid
the
foundation stone for the new hospital, which was to be ready by 1940.
The projected cost of the hospital was £990,837.

The new hospital would have 862 beds and an
Out-Patients Department, which would include clinics for patients with
TB, VD and mental disorders. There would also be a dental surgery
and a Pathological Laboratory. The X-ray and Massage Departments
would serve both in- and out-patients.

St Helier Hospital opened on 24th February
1941, when the first patients were admitted. Although it had been
completed by 1940, because of the war it could not be properly
equipped because of shortages of staff and materials. The
buildings had been painted dark grey to make them
less visible to German bombers.

The Hospital consisted of six buildings, the
main one containing Blocks A, B and C. The wards were
designated by a letter (for the Block) and a number (for the floor),
e.g. Ward A1 would be on the first floor of Block A. The wards in
the main building were long, with beds down each side, and a window
between each bed. At one end of the ward were side wards and, at
the other, a solarium. Block D contained the Pathology
Department. (It is unclear if there was an E Block). The
4-storey F Block contained the children's wards,
the ENT Department and a theatre suite. G Block was for those
suffering from TB or rheumatic heart disease (by the 1970s it was
mostly used for patients with chest disease, for example, chronic
bronchitis or lung cancer).

The lower ground floor and the ground floor
each contained a corridor, which ran the along the width of the
Hospital.

The ground floor of the 5-storey nurses'
home
- Ferguson House - contained a dining room and a sitting room for the
nurses and separate ones for the Sisters and other senior nurses.
The nurses' bedrooms were on the first, second and third floors.
The fourth floor contained bedrooms for Staff Nurses and the
fifth floor small apartments for senior nursing staff. Ferguson
House had been named after Dr James Ferguson, C.B.E., (1879-1949), the
County Medical Officer for Surrey from 1929 to 1946, who was
instrumental in the planning of health services for the new Estate.

Less than a month after the Hospital had
opened, on 19th March 1941, it was severely damaged by a landmine.
The maternity and children's wings were completely destroyed, and
the few in-patients were evacuated to other hospitals. The damage
was estimated to be to the tune of £240,000.

Admissions were resumed on 21st May 1941 and
temporary repairs had been completed by the end of the year.

In June 1944 a flying bomb
caused damage estimated at £130,000. The Medical
Superintendent's house, in front of Ferguson House, was completely
destroyed. The Medical Superintendent was severely injured,
losing an eye. Urgent repairs to the Hospital buildings had been
completed by the end of the year, and less urgent ones later.

After the war the Hospital was gradually
brought into full use (a process that continued until 1955).

In 1948 it joined the NHS under the control
of the St Helier Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the South
West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Some bomb damage still
needed to be repaired, at an estimated cost of £75,000.

The Hospital, like so many others after the
war, suffered from a shortage of nursing staff, and recruitment was
difficult as the site was poorly served by public transport.
Also,
since it was a new hospital, it lacked endowments, thus a League of
Friends was formed in 1951 to provide amenities for patients and staff.

In 1952 the Hospital had 763 beds and the
weekly cost of an in-patient was £15 1s 3d (£15.06).
In April 1952 a new X-ray set was installed. During this
year only one ward could be repaired, but 24 still needed to be done.
However, a Mental Observation Ward for female patients was opened
(male patients were sent to Kingston Hospital).

In 1957 Ferguson House, the Nurses' Home,
had 367 rooms for nursing staff, but 60 Sisters had to live out so that
student nurses could have rooms.

In 1958 the weekly cost of an in-patient was
£23 7s 2d (£23.36), decreasing to £21 9s 2d
(£21.46) in 1959.

In March 1959 the Hospital celebrated the
21st anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone by Queen Mary.

In 1960 two empty wards were converted into
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Departments. The Chest
Clinic moved to a new building at the Cumberland
Hospital. This freed up a ward, which was converted into 8
private patient rooms (the only private patient beds otherwise
available were in special departments) and 4 amenity beds in two
double-bedded wards. These opened in 1961.

On 7th November 1961 two double-decker buses
collided head-on just outside the Hospital entrance. The 42
casualties were treated at the Hospital, 8 of them members of staff.

During the 1960s it had been found that the
concrete foundations were deteriorating because of Epsom salts
(magnesium sulphate) in the ground, which created a chemical reaction
that destroyed concrete.

The Hospital celebrated its Jubilee year in
1963 and the Queen Mother visited to present nursing awards to the
staff.

In 1965 the weekly cost of an in-patient was
£39 8s 7d (£39.43), rising to £44 1s 0d
(£44.05)
in 1966.

By 1966 the roofs and drainage systems were
also causing trouble. However, a Renal Dialysis Unit was
established, a new theatre installed, the Pathology Laboratory enlarged
and an extension built to house the Physiotherapy and Occupational
Therapy Departments. The Hospital had 763 beds, of which 666 were
staffed.

In 1969 a Renal Unit was established to
provide dialysis for kidney patients.

In 1970 the weekly cost of an in-patient was
£76.17, increasing to £82.68 by 1971.

Following a major reorganisation of the NHS
in 1974, the Hospital came under the control of the Sutton & West
Merton District Health Authority, part of the South West Thames
Regional Health Authority.

In 1974 surgeons performed the first kidney
transplant at the Hospital (the first in the United Kingdom had taken
place in Edinburgh in 1960).

In 1975 the Hospital was modernised and
re-equipped. Furniture and flooring was upgraded.

The Accident & Emergency Department
opened in 1977, at a cost of £200,000. It was formally
opened by Mrs Alison Munro, the former Chairman of the Merton, Sutton
and Wandsworth Health Authority.

In 1982, after another major reorganisation of the NHS, the
Hospital came under the administration of the Merton & Sutton
District Health Authority.

The Hospital is still operational and
has 521 beds. It comprises 8 buildings, including Queen Mary's
Hospital for Children and the nurses' home
(Ferguson House), all with their own entrances but linked to the main
building by corridors. The Women's Health Block, behind the main
building, contains the maternity and gynaecological wards and clinics.
The Renal
Unit, G Block and Beacon
Ward are behind the Women's Health Block and Queen Mary's Hospital
for Children. Ferguson House contains some out-patient clinics,
offices and an undergraduate teaching suite.

Update: May 2013

In March 2010 the Department of
Health approved a plan to redevelop the site. The proposals
involved demolishing Ferguson House and replacing it with a £127m
state-of-the-art building which would house the majority of the wards
and clinics. This new building would have 346 beds, 50% of which
would be in single rooms. Another £40m would be spent on
upgrading the original buildings, including the operating theatres.
Some £17m would be spent on a local care centre, which
would offer diagnostic services, including imaging. A new
purpose-built Out-Patients Department would also be built, as would a
multi-storey car park. The new
redevelopment would cost an estimated £219m.

In November 2011 a formal bid to
merge with the Hospital was submitted by St George's
Healthcare NHS Trust. However, the bid was withdrawn in
February 2012 because of financial difficulties.

In June 2012 NHS London approved the
first sum of money - £12.7m - initially to be spent on
demolishing
Ferguson House, which housed most of the out-patient clinics. It
was anticipated the clinics would move to Sutton
Hospital in July 2013, by which time facilities there would have
been upgraded. Demolition work would then start in late 2013, and
construction work for the new block early in 2015. The new
building would open in 2017.

The Hospital's future became once
again uncertain. It has been mooted that its Accident and
Emergency Department and the Maternity Unit may be closed and services
transferred to other hospitals. Public protest has already begun.

The main entrance leads into B Block.
The complex from the north.

Ferguson House is at the north of the site.
The southern part of the Hospital.